The Acolytes
by William Logan
Summary: Set during "Day of Reckoning," this shows what I believe went on at Magneto's base when his Acolytes---Sabretooth, Gambit, Pyro, and Colossus---returned after their battle with the X-Men


Disclaimer: X-Men: Evolution and all related characters belong to Marvel Entertainment, Inc.  
  
What happened with the Acolytes after their brief battle with the X-Men and Brotherhood in "Day of Reckoning"?  
  
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"The Acolytes"  
By William Logan  
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The five metal spheres slowed to a halt in Magneto's lair, touching down on the ground and sliding open. Only four of the spheres contained mutants, the last, the one Magneto had traveled to New York in, was empty. The occupants of the others were Sabretooth, Gambit, Pyro, and Colossus, Magneto's loyal Acolytes, his elite warriors. They stepped out of their respective globes and onto the floor, a few of them groaning from wounds they had sustained in their battle.  
  
"I can't believe it," Pyro, the youngest of the Acolytes, cried angrily, tearing the orange goggles he wore as part of his costume off of his head and threw them to the ground, shattering the thick plastic lenses, the Australian mutant went on, kicking angrily at the broken eye wear, "how could we have gotten beaten so badly? We've been training for this for months, and they took us down like we were the greenest rookies."  
  
Sabretooth ignored Pyro's rant, crossing to a video monitor and turning on the news, watching Magneto's plan unfold before him.  
  
"We were jus' a distraction, anyways," the red-eyed Cajun, Gambit said, leaning his Bo staff against a wall, "an' not all of us were beaten so easily, mon ami." He grinned, removing a deck of cards from a pocket in his costume, shuffling them rapidly, "in fact, dat lovely li'l X-Homme pro'lly found dat li'l gift I gave her t'be a bit more dan she bargained fo'." He wouldn't confess it to the rest of the guys, but he hadn't charged the card enough to hurt the girl with the white streak in her hair, just enough to keep her out of the battle for a few moments. She hadn't seemed as bad as Magneto had told him...  
  
"Would you idiots shut up for a minute?" Sabretooth snapped, "I'm tryin' to watch this."  
  
"Oh, m'sieur 'Tooth is suddenly int'rested in da world news. Jou know, Sabretooth, I never suspect'd dat jou'd work fo' a guy like Magneto... bein' someone's lackey jes don' seem like jou." Gambit concealed a grin, purposely trying to get under the larger mutant's skin.  
  
"I told ya to shut up, LeBeau!" Sabretooth said, growling now as he watched the images on the screen. The X-Man known as Spyke and the Brotherhood member called the Blob had just been encased in some sort of green goop. Colossus had a look of satisfaction on his face as he saw the overweight mutant taken out.  
  
"I don't know why Magneto didn't bloody just let us deal with those bloomin' idiots, instead of making us be the distraction," Pyro was still ranting.  
  
"Comrade, Lord Magneto has his reasons for every action he performs, there was a greater purpose in this exercise," Colossus finally spoke, turning to look at the flame-controlling mutant.  
  
Pyro huffed and leaned against the wall, watching the monitors, observing the chaos on the screens. The Marines had just arrived on the scene, and it looked like the blue-furred teleporter had just dropped a grenade on the arm of the Sentinel robot. The Acolytes finally fell quiet as they watched the chaos unfold on the screen. Gambit couldn't help but think to himself just how well the X-Men worked together as a team, how it would be nice to have trustworthy friends. But trustworthy people would have nothing to do with the young thief, given his unethical past. He scratched at his scruffy beard and sighed.  
  
"Hey, look, LeBeau, there goes your girlfriend," Sabretooth snickered as Rogue was ensnared in the same emerald-colored substance as the Blob and Spyke. When Sabretooth wasn't looking, Gambit charged a card and casually tossed it at the other mutant's feet, grinning as the blow knocked the huge, hairy man onto his butt. Gambit laughed and Pyro and Colossus couldn't contain a couple of snickers. Sabretooth snarled and turned, leaping on Gambit, who barely had enough time to grab his Bo staff and fend off the attacker. The two tumbled to the ground and proceeded to fight, trading insults as they rolled about. Pyro was thoroughly entertained by the battle, but Colossus had turned his attention back to the screen, which was now showing a view of the Sentinel hovering near the building from which Magneto and his son, Quicksilver, had orchestrated the entire event. Something was wrong, Colossus thought, Magneto was running from the Sentinel instead of trying to fight back. It was then that he noticed a third figure standing with Quicksilver and Magneto, a girl dressed in a red trenchcoat. From the information Magneto had given to his Acolytes before the battle, Colossus knew that the girl was Scarlet Witch, Wanda Maximoff, daughter of Eric Lensherr. The girl had held a serious grudge against her father since he locked her away in a mental institute when she lost control of her powers.  
  
"You may want to take a look at this, comrades," Colossus said, a note of concern in his voice, "Lord Magneto appears to be in peril." Gambit and Sabretooth stopped their battle and scrambled to their feet. The Cajun was bleeding from the nose and the lip, and the animalistic mutant had a black eye. A helicopter came into view, opening fire on the Sentinel. The body of the mechanical mutant hunter exploded, showering Scarlet Witch and Magneto with debris, and the flying robot began to fall.  
  
"Dis ain't gon' be pretty," Gambit said, wincing as he watched the robot fall where Magneto was standing. The four stood in silence for a few moments, none of them looking more shocked than Colossus. Sabretooth just snarled, he had no real allegiances, and Magneto's death just meant he would have to go through the trouble of finding a new boss.  
  
"He can't be dead," Colossus muttered in disbelief.  
  
"Unless dere was some miracle, I don' t'ink he made it outta dere alive," Gambit said. Pyro leaned against the wall, mouth agape, staring at the screen in disbelief. At that moment, the metal door of the fortress flew open rapidly and a breeze blew up in all of their faces. A blue, red, and purple blur flashed in front of them and stopped at a chair near the television monitor. Finally, the wind stopped and the blur clearly became Magneto and Quicksilver, neither of them looking particularly injured.  
  
"Lord Magneto! It is good to see that you are all right!" Colossus said, rushing over to the Master of Magnetism.  
  
"Father, are you all right?" Quicksilver asked. Pyro walked over to see if the leader of the group had actually returned to them alive, and the man sitting before him was not just a figure of his imagination. Sabretooth remained at a distance, not really caring that Magneto was still alive his attention, and hatred, was set on the charming mutant thief Remy LeBeau. Lastly, Gambit stood in front of the television monitor, watching as the mutants captured by the Sentinel were loaded into military vans. He frowned as he watched the girl with white-streaked hair carried off and silently wished her good luck.  
  
"I am fine," Magneto replied wearily, "now the world knows of us, and soon they will tremble before Homo sapiens superior."  
  
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FIN 


End file.
